Raucous sellout crowd provided emotional boost to Colorado State

Feb. 14, 2013

CSU's Pierce Hornung, left, and Colton Iverson (45) celebrate with teammate Dorian Green after their 66-60 win Wednesday night over San Diego State at Moby Arena. Green scored six points in the final 1:03 of the game to seal the win for the Rams. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

Written by

New Mexico game a sellout

All remaining tickets for the CSU men’s basketball team’s Feb. 23 home game against New Mexico were sold Thursday, school officials announced, assuring the school of its third consecutive sellout crowd of 8,745 fans. The 2,500 tickets set aside for students will be distributed, beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday at the McGraw Athletic Center Ticket Office on the west side of Moby Arena, a school spokesman said. CSU, ranked No. 24 in the nation this week, has won 27 consecutive home games, the past two in front of sellout crowds.

More

ADVERTISEMENT

Decked out in orange for the Rams’ annual game to honor the school’s heritage and screaming at the top of their lungs for much of the night, the sellout crowd of 8,745 did their part.

The emotional boost from start to finish carried the No. 24 Colorado State University men’s basketball team to its 27th consecutive home win — the third-longest active streak in the nation — Wednesday night. The 66-60 win over San Diego State was CSU’s first win as a nationally ranked team in 59 years.

“It was an unbelievable atmosphere,” CSU coach Larry Eustachy said afterward, calling it the best he’s seen in his 34-year career. “… That’s hard for a team to come down and make the plays when that place is going nuts in the last two minutes. It’s a difference-maker.

“We don’t win without the crowd.”

And the Rams (20-4, 7-2 Mountain West Conference) likely don’t win without a team effort.

Dorian Green, a senior guard, made the plays at the finish, sinking a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:03 remaining and converting a three-point play with 19.4 seconds left to push the Rams’ lead to four points.

Pierce Horning and Greg Smith, both senior forwards, each scored eight of their team’s first 22 points. Freshman guard Jon Octeus hit two baskets that provided the Rams’ only points during a five-minute stretch late in the second half.

Center Colton Iverson pulled down 11 rebounds on a night in which the 6-foot-10, 261-pound senior was held to just seven points — half his per-game average. Or the six rebounds of sophomore guard Daniel Bejarano.

“We’re going to have to step up in key moments,” Green said. “Tonight, it was me offensively; I hit those shots. But everybody’s done it through the season. I don’t really get that shot off (the 3-pointer) if Pierce doesn’t get that rebound.

“So I think it’s just a team effort, and it’s a collective effort, both offensively and defensively.”

And that’s what makes the Rams a team to be reckoned with down the stretch as they battle No. 19 New Mexico (21-4, 8-2) for the MW title, with a showdown at Moby just eight days away.

(Page 2 of 2)

San Diego State basically took Iverson, the Rams’ leading scorer, and senior guard Wes Eikmeier, the third-leading scorer who is mired in a 3-for-24 shooting slump, away from CSU’s offense. Yet other Rams stepped up to replace those points. Green finished with 16, Smith 15, Hornung 12 and Octeus nine, including a breakaway dunk with 10 seconds left to put a exclamation mark on one of CSU’s biggest wins — ever.

Eustachy, who has taken three other schools to the NCAA Tournament and guided Iowa State to the Elite Eight in 2000, has said repeatedly that this could be the best team he’s ever coached, emphasizing the word “team.” With this group, it’s not a cliche.

The Rams lead the nation in rebounding margin at plus-13.8 and pulled down 12 more Wednesday night than the Aztecs. They’ve got tremendous balance on offense, with all five starters averaging between 9.7 and 13.5 points a game, and four different leading scorers in the past seven games. They had 16 assists on 24 made baskets against San Diego State.

And they’re limiting opponents to 38.0 percent shooting from the floor and just 59.8 points a game. San Diego State’s Jamal Franklin, last year’s MW player of the year, was 0 for 6 from the floor in the second half and finished with just 11 points — 6.5 below his average — on 4-of-13 shooting.

CSU has what it takes to not only get to the NCAA Tournament again but to win a game or two – maybe even more – when it gets there. And, as Eustachy pointed out again after a win over a San Diego State team that he believes could reach the Sweet 16 and is ranked No. 22 this week in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll, the Rams still have a lot of room to grow over the next few weeks.

“The thing I like is we can just get better; we can make a lot of improvement in this short period of time,” Eustachy said. “… I think we could play a lot better than we played tonight.”